Method and means for weaving elastic grip waistbands



J1me 1961 H. HOROWITZ 2,988,112

METHOD AND MEANS FOR WEAVING ELASTIC GRIP WAISTBANDS Filed Dec. 27, 19554 Sheets-Sheet 1 ATTORNEY June 13, 1961 H. HOROWITZ METHOD AND MEANS FORWEAVING ELASTIC GRIP WAISTBANDS Filed Dec. 27, 1955 4 Sheets-Sheet 2INVENTOR Hafig Hanoi 112i; BY

ATTO R N EY June 13, 1961 H. HOROWITZ 2,988,112

METHOD AND MEANS FOR WEAVING ELASTIC GRIP WAISTBANDS Filed Dec. 27, 19554 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR Harry Horowaf ATTORN EY 2,988,112 METHOD ANDMEANS FOR WEAVING ELASTIC GRIP WAISTBANDS Filed Dec. 27, 1955 June 13,1961 H. HOROWITZ 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 4 htriunlilivlvlltllifi\inillitlliiiulliu.ii. .5 E. E.

6 3 7 w j 2 RO@ m I 2 W W% e 2 2 g 3 l T- 5 W 7 7 2 w 2 0 4 7 W ZATTORNEY United States Patent 2,988,112 METHOD AND MEANS FOR WEAVINGELASTIC GRIP WAISTBANDS Harry Horowitz, Summit, N .J. National WaistbandCorporation, 499 7th Ave., New York, N .Y.) Filed Dec. 27, 1955, Ser.No. 555,503 7 Claims. (Cl. 139-11) The present invention relates to amethod and mechanism for weaving elastic grip waistbands andparticularly relates to a method for making a substantially integralfabric in which a superimposed rectangular or square crosssection rubberthread may be woven into a fabric on a normally wide loom withoutspecial attachments.

It is among the objects of the present invention to provide a novelmechanism and procedure for weaving elastic grip waistband fabrics inwhich a standard loom construction may be employed without complicatedadjustments or reconstruction to produce a wide fabric having a seriesof superimposed warp square-cut or rectangularcut elastic threadspositioned on the surface thereof and which fabric may be subsequentlycut longitudinally to provide standard waistband lengths and widths.

Another object is to provide a mechanism and procedure for weavingelastic grip fabrics in which a plurality of square cross-section rubberthreads are woven into a textile fabric in such a manner as to provide agripping waistband structure without special braiding or knittingequipment.

A further object is to provide a weaving procedure and mechanism bymeans of which square cross-section cut rubber threads may be woven withround cross-section textile threads to produce a substantially uniformfabric without difiiculty because of varying tension or character of thethreads and without impeding the high-speed operation of the loom andits associated shuttles and other operating mechanism.

Still further objects and advantages will appear in the more detaileddescription set forth below, it being understood, however, that thismore detailed description is given by way of illustration andexplanation only and not by way of limitation, since various changestherein may be made by those skilled in the art without departing fromthe scope and spirit of the present invention.

In accomplishing the above objects, it has been found most satisfactoryto weave the square cross-section or rectangular cross-section rubberthreads, which are desirably slitted, from a sheet of material directlyinto the warp and weft of the textile threads with the rubber warp beingfed in above the textile warp and with the filling being utilized toplate or superimpose the rubber warp upon the textile warp.

Desirably, the textile warp consists of a series of closely spaced warpthreads, the spacing of which is uniform regardless whether there issuperimposed thereon the cut rubber threads.

The textile filling threads, on the other hand, are so controlled thatthey will plate or superimpose the cut rectangular or squarecross-section rubber threads directly upon the woven fabric formed froma textile warp and filling.

In the previous form of the invention, the square-cut or rectangular-cutrubber threads are of sufiicient width and depth as to exceed theaverage diameter of the Warp and filling threads by two to three timesand sometimes as much as five times so as to assure the mostsatisfactory overlay.

On the other hand, the filling threads which are utilized to tie or holdthe rectangular cross-section rubber threads upon the surface of thewoven textile fabric are so positioned in respect to'the rubber warpthat every third to wise rubber threads and hold them down upon thebasic textile weave consisting of warp and filling threads having adiameter ranging from one-tenth to one-fourth and somethimes one-half ofthe superimposed square crosssection or rectangular cross-section rubberthreads.

The basic weave is desirably a cotton faille or rayon twill weave andthe woven fabric may be suitably stiffened with buckram which may bestitched to each edge as well as to the back of the woven grip-tightfabric strip.

In the prior procedure, the rubber is supplied as a band which has beenpreviously slit into the strips which are desirably slightly Wider thandeep, and these alternate strips are then separated from the slit bandof rubber material and are powdered so as to enhance their passagethrough the various loom mechanisms, including the reeds, harnesses,sheds and heddle eyes. Preferably, the cut rubber threads are fed abovethe warp threads into the harnesses and the throw of the harnesscarrying the rubber threads is such that in the various sheds that areformed the rubber threads will be kept slightly outside and above andbelow the textile threads.

By this provision, the shuttles in their passage across the threads willcontact the textile threads rather than the rubber threads.

The square-cross-section of the rubber threads gives a better grip tothe rubber threads, both in respect to woven textile base as well as inthe final fabric, and the tightness of the filling threads to hold therubber threads in position upon the basic textile fabric will controlthe canting of the rubber threads so that they will be inclined, or sothat their edges will project above the surface of the final fabric andhave the desired gripping effect.

Although the woven fabric that is the textile warp and filling may be ofa wide variety of yarns, such as cotton, wool, silk, viscose rayon orcupramrnonium rayon, it has been found most satisfactory to form theyarns of therm0 plastic materials, such as cellulose acetate or, lesspreferably, nylon or even vinyon which will permit the woven fabric tobe readily sealed against unravelling in case of cutting.

-An important feature of the present invention relates to the feed ofthe cut rubber yarns into the standard loom operation, and it has beenfound most satisfactory to regulate the feed of the rubber yarn by adifferent procedure than is utilized to regulate the feed of the textilewarp. The most satisfactory feed is controlled by the dobby motion sothat the operation of the shed and the feed of the rubber threads willbe synchronized and so that the rubber threads will be fed into thesheds under a substantially greater tension than the warp threadswithout at the same time causing any gathering warpwise of the finalfabric.

With the foregoing and other objects in view the invention consists ofthe novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts ashereinafter more specifically described, and illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, wherein is shown an embodiment of the invention,but it is to be understood that changes, variations and modificationscan be restored to which fall within the scope of the claims hereuntoappended.

In the drawings wherein like reference characters denote correspondingparts throughout the several views:

FIG. 1 is a side diagrammatic view showing the feed of the rubber warpthreads into the loom structure together with the control for such feed.

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the rubber feed mechanism upon anenlarged scale as compared to FIG. 1.

eighth filling thread will engage or extend over the warpc FIG. 3 is atop plan view of the mechanism of FIG. 2 upon an enlarged scale ascompared to FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a side diagrammatic view illustrating the feedingof thetextile and rubber war-p into the sheds so that the rubber threads willalways be outermost and the inside textile warp will be in contact withthe shuttle.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged showing similar to FIG. 4 showing the place wherethe shuttles pass through the threads and contact the textile threads.

FIG. 6 is a top plan view of the final woven fabric with the rubberthreads canting left and right and plated upon the textile fabric.

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary transverse sectional view of the woven fabric ofFIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary top perspective view of a waistband structurewith the elastic grip waistband of the present invention sewn inposition therein.

FIG. 9 is a fragmentary inside elevational view of the waistband of FIG.8 upon an enlarged scale as compared to FIG. 8.

FIG. 10 is a fragmentary top elevational view showing the method ofattaching the elastic back member.

FIG. 11 is a transverse sectional view taken upon line 11-11 of FIG. 9.

FIG. 12 is a fragmentary elevational view similar to FIG. 9 of analternative structure.

FIG. 13 is a top plan view of the embodiment of FIG. 12 from the line13-13 of FIG. 12.

Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a support table A below which ispositioned the supply B of a partly slitted rubber strip material C. Thestrip material then will be fed into the powdering and feeding device D,and it then passes to the loom E shown in FIG. 4, and it will finallyform the woven fabric F indicated in FIGS. 7 and 8 The rate of feed iscontrolled by the mechanism shown at G which will regulate the rubberwarp H and the textile warp J, as shown at the left of FIG. 1, so thatthey will pass into the loom sheds indicated at K in FIG. 4 under theproper tension and at the proper rate.

The feed regulating mechanism, as shown in small scale in FIG. 1 and inlarge scale in FIGS. 2 and 3, has a base 10 and side plate 11. Theslitted rubber sheet C first passes between the forks 12, which extendupwardly from the vertical plate 11. The rubber sheet then passes overthe roll 13, under the main feed roll 14, and then over the roll 15.

The main feed roll 14 has a serrated surface and it will be driven bythe shaft 16 from the bevel gear 17, which in turn meshes with the bevelgear 18 on the shaft 19. The two supplemental guide rolls 13 and arecarried on the bracket 20, which in turn the lever 21. The handle 22Will enable the two rollers 13 and 15 to be lifted from the roller 14correcting the tension and also correcting the feed of the rubberstrands M and N as they pass through the loom.

As the strands leave the roller 15 they are separated as indicated at Mand N with each alternate rectangular cross-section or squarecross-section rubber thread passing, respectively, over the upper guideroller 30 and the lower guide roller 31. The strands then pass throughthe vertical cone element 33, which is mounted upon the rod 34. Theseparated strands M and N after passing through the cone 33 are reunitedas they pass over the roller 35 and under the serrated roller 36.

The serrated roller is driven by the shaft 37 and through the meshingbevel gears 38 and 39.

. Bevel gear 39 is mounted upon the shaft 19.

The strands then pass over the roller 40. Both rollers 35 and 40 arecarried by the bracket 41 and on the arms 42 and 43. The handle 44 maybe used to lift strands on the rollers 35 and 40 from the serratedroller 36. The strands will then pass over the final guide roller 45 andthrough the stop motion eyes 46, as shown in FIG. 1, the reed 47 andinto the loom.

The entire feed of the strands M and N into the loom, as indicated at Hin FIG. 1, is regulated by the speed with which the serrated facerollers 14 and 36 are driven by the shaft 19 through the meshing bevelgears 17, 18, 38 and is mounted on 39. This drive is effected in themanner above shown in FIG. 1 through the driving mechanism indicated atG.

On the dobby motion of the loom there will be positioned a T-lever 65,which is pivotally mounted at 66 and which controls the operation of thesheds P shown in FIG. 4.

The arm 67 of the lever has 21 depending dobby connecting rod 68 whichis pivotally connected at 69 to the top crank 70.

The top crank will be driven by 71 from the main shaft of the loommechanism. The lower arm 72 of the lever 65 is slotted at 73 andreceives the adjustable arm 74. The arm 74 is provided with a pin 75which may be clamped in an adjusted position in the slot 73. The outerend 76 of the arm 74 has a pin 77 which engages strap 78. The strap 78rides on the pulley 79 and it has a hook connection at 80 to the strap81.

The strap 81 is connected by the rod or chain 82 to the clamping nut 83.The clamping nut 83 is fixed in an adjusted position in the slot 84 inthe movable pawl arm 85 which is pivotally mounted at 86. The pawl armcarries the pawl 87, which is pulled upwardly by the rod or chain 82 andthe lever 85, and then is permitted to drop by reason of its weight.

Pawl 87 engages the teeth 88 of the rigid wheel 89 and advances suchrigid wheel by one or two teeth 88 on each reciprocation of the lever65.

The rigid wheel is held in position by the fixed pawl 90, which ismounted by means of a coil spring on the pivot 91 at the lower end ofthe arm 92.

As the rigid wheel 89 is advanced by the pawl 87, it will drive thepinion or sprocket 93 and advance the chain 94. The chain 94 passes overthe pulley 95 and then over the gear or sprocket wheel 96. The sprocketwheel 96 will drive the shaft 97 and the bevel gear 98. The bevel gear98 will mesh with and drive the bevel gear 99 and the shaft 19 tocontrol the feed of the rubber warp threads to the loom. As the rubberwarp threads pass through the control feed mechanism D they will pickpowdered chalk from the pans and 111 which are provided with the feltrollers 112 and 113. These felt rollers will pick up chalk powder fromthe pans 110 and 111 and will rub it onto the rubber strands passingover and around the serratetd face rollers '14 and 36. Where anadditional supply of chalk is desired, a sieve 114 may be provided, asshown in FIG. 1, to permit a supply of chalk to fall down upon theseparated strands M and N as they pass over to the loom indicated at theleft of FIG. 1.

The felt pad 115 shown at the left of FIG. 1 may be utilized forremoving excess powder from the strands H as they are being fed into theshed arrangement, as is indicated diagrammatically in FIG. 4.

The warp textile yarns in the meanwhile will be fed upwardly from thewarp beam (not shown) and over the roller 116. Both the textile warp Iand the rubber warp II will pass through the heddles of the harness P asshown in FIG. 4 and will be formed into sheds. The shed of the rubberthreads will usually be outside of the shed 126 of the textile threads.

As shown in small scale in FIG. 4 and larger scale in FIG. 5 the lay Qwill move upwardly and forwardly on the support rod or sword R and willcarry over the raceway 127 the shuttle S.

The shuttle S in moving back and forth will usually rub against thetextile strands 126 and will not contact the square-cut rubber strands125. The woven fabric will then be combined at the felt T and then willpass over the beam U and will finally be rolled up as it passesdownwardly at W.

The fabric itself, which is best shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, consists of aseries of rubber strands.

The final woven fabric as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 has a plurality ofrubber strands of the rectangular crossseetion which are held inposition by means of the filler ends 151 on top of the woven fabric I.It will be noted that these woven rubber strands 150 are held inside-byside relationship and are not gathered or clumped together. As aresult, their sharp edges 154 will be canted and will project foranti-slip or friction purposes.

Where the fabric as shown in FIG. 7 is to be used as, for example,friction waistbands, it may be slit at positions 153 between the elasticor rubber strips and the split edges may be sewn or adhesively sealedtogether, particularly where a thermoplastic, cellulose acetate orsimilar yarn has been employed.

If desired, the slitting operation may take place as the fabric passesbeyond the front beam U and these cutter forms may be provided with heatsealing means to provide the filler or warp itself, or both, to sealtogether because of their thermoplastic character.

The procedure of the present invention permits square cross-section orrectangular cross-section rubber strips to be woven into a taffeta weavefabric for regularly heavy yarns of 150 to 300 denier and permits alarge number of friction strips as shown in FIG. 7 to be performed inside-by-side relationship.

The rubber warp feed as indicated at D for the elastic yarns iscoordinated with the warp beam let off by means of the dobby motion G,so that the rubber strands will be fed into the shed at the same timeand at the same rate as the warp ends.

The final fabric as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 with the rubber strands insuperimposed relationship on top of the woven fabric will assure mosteffective anti-friction bands making use of at least two edges of therubber strips 150 which will be bowed upwardly as indicated in FIG. 7 asthey are pulled down by the filling ends 151.

Referring to the embodiment of FIGS. 8 to 10, there is shown a typicalelastic grip waistband of the present invention as mountetd in a garment250, which may be a skirt or a pair of pants, shorts or slacks for men,women or children.

The rows of elastic material which have been Woven directly into thefabric, as indicated at 254, are superimposed or plated upon the wovenmaterial 253.

A portion of the strip of material 253 is folded as indicated at 255 topermit expansion and an elastic band 257 is sewn in position by thestitching 280 and 281. Two of these folded portions are shown in FIG. 8at 255 and 256, which will give extra length at the opposite sides ofthe garment 250 and inside of the belt portion 251.

It will be noted that the Waistband of the garment 250 has an expansibleportion 259 and the belt section 251 may be held in position by means ofthe button or fastener 252.

The elastic portion or section 257 is stretchable so as to permitexpansion of the band 253, with partial or full opening of the folds 255and 256.

Referring to FIG. 11, it will be noted that the top portion or top edge258 is folded over and in back of the rigid buckram material 260 and thedownturned, folded portion 259 is stitched to the buckram at 261. Theelastic 257 will then partly be positioned over the foldeddown portion259 and it will extend on both sides of the three plated strips ofrubber gripping material 254.

The lower portion of the fabric 253 will extend below the lower edge ofthe buckram or stifi material 260, which buckram material will in turnextend below the lower edge of the elastic 257.

The upper folded edge 258 is desirably stitched at 282 directly to thetop of the garment 250. The lower edge of the material 253 may bestitched to the garment 250 or left free.

In the alternative structure, as shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, the wovenfabric material 274 carrying the plated strips of rubber threads 276 hasseparate pieces which are connected by the elastic member 275.

The ends 278 of the cut sections 274 are folded rearwardly as indicatedat 277 with the ends of the elastic sections 275 and stitched inposition as indicated at 278.

Where it is necessary to halve yield in the waistbands, as is frequentlythe case with mens waistband, the weave should be loose to enable thewaistband to have a certain amount of stretch. To do this the filling orpic threads are spaced and a slippery pic or filling is used which mayhave a smooth surface or which may have been lubricatcd.

In attaching the woven bands to the buckram, the stitching is limited toone edge, preferably the top, and the other edge is left loose orunsewn.

. As many changes could be made in the above frictionwoven fabrics andmethod and machine for making the same, and many widely differentembodiments of this invention could be made without departing from thescope of the claims, it is intended that all matter contained in theabove description shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in alimiting sense.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of theinvention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, what isclaimed is:

1. A method of weaving textile fabrics having textile warp and fillingthreads of circular cross section and rectangular cross section rubberstrands plated thereon to give such fabrics gripping qualities when usedas waistbands and the like which comprises feeding a slitted rubberribbon, separating the alternate slitted strands to form a plurality ofseparated rubber strands of rectangular cross section, weaving saidstrands with round cross section textile threads with the warp textilethreads being parallel to the rubber strands and the rubber strandsbeing positioned on top of the textile threads and drawing said rubberstrands tightly down against said textile threads by spaced fillingthreads, said rubber strands being maintained in substantially greatertension than the Warp threads during weaving and being formed into ashed positioned outside of the shed formed of the textile threads sothat the shuttle in weaving will contact the textile threads and not therubber strands.

2. The method of claim 1, in which the rubber threads are powdered asthey are fed with the warp textile threads.

3. The method of claim I, in which the spaced filling threads are drawndown tightly upon the rubber strands to cant with their cornersupwardly.

4. A machine for weaving textile fabrics having textile warp and fillingthreads of circular cross section and rectangular cross section rubberstrands plated thereon to give such fabrics gripping qualities when usedas waistbands and the like which comprises a loom with harnessescarrying heddles and means for feeding and separating a slitted rubberribbon into rubber strands and to feed said rubber strands into saidheddles, said feeding means including means to powder the rubber strandsduring sep aration, said feeding means tensioning the rubber strands sothat they will be fed in with substantially greater tension than thewarp threads.

5. A method of plating rubber strands on a taffeta woven fabric whichcomprises separating a broad band of rubber into rectangular crosssection rubber strands and feeding them in superimposed relationshipover textile warp threads and then weaving the textile warp threads withtextile filler threads and at intervals causing a filler to extend overand draw down alternate rubber strands against the taffeta weave, saidrubber strands: being positioned with one of their sides flat againstthe taffeta fabric and with the rubber strands being at least two tothree times in width and thickness than the cross section of the textilewarp threads and the textile filler threads and said rubber strandsbeing powdered to enhance their movement during the weaving operation,the feed of said rubber strands being controlled so that they will befed in with substantially greater tension than the tension on the warpstrands and removing the excess powder from the rubber strands beforethey are combined with the textile warp threads and the textile fillerthreads.

6. A method of weaving textile fabrics comprising circular cross sectionwarp and filler and powdered rectangular cross section rubber strandsunder tension said rubber strands being superimposed in side by siderelationship on the fabric with their flat sides held tightly againstthe fabric by spaced fillers which comprises feeding and separating therubber strands from a slitted strip of rubber and holding them undersubstantial tension outside of the warp during weaving, powdering therubber strands as they are separated from the strip of rubber and thenforming the sheds of textile warp threads so that they will bepositioned inside of the sheds of rubber strands with the textile warpthreads being positioned between the shuttle and the rubber strands sothat the textile warp threads and not the rubber strands will contactthe shuttle in its movement-through the sheds with the textile warpstrands preventing the shuttle from contacting the rubber strands in itsmovement through the lay.

7. A method of preparing a woven fabric having a Warp and a weft ofcellulose acetate threads of circular crosssection, and positioned onsaid fabric strands of rubber of rectangular cross-section for grippingpurposes, said method comprising separating an elongated band of rubberinto rubber strands of rectangular cross-section, applying a powder tothe strands as they are being separated, feeding to the point of weavingthe cellulose acetate warp threads and the powdered separated rubberstrands with the said warp threads parallel to the said rubber strandsand'with the said rubber strands in superimposed relation to the saidwarp threads, and weaving the cellulose acetate warp and weft threadstogether with the said rubber strands while subjecting the said rubberstrands to substantially greater tension than the said warp threads,whereby the rubber strands superimposed on the fabric are tightly drawndown upon the warp and weft threads of the fabric by spaced weftthreads.

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